By the early 1500s, no European had yet landed on the mainland of what we now call the United States. Then came the Spaniard Juan Ponce de León. It was Easter season, 1513. He came ashore on a landscape lush with flowers and named it La Florida, from a Spanish name for Easter, Pascua Florida. Another first for Spain. Another Spanish mark on the new world.

Key Takeaways

• Juan Ponce de León landed in Florida in Easter season 1513 and named it La Florida, from the Spanish for Easter, Pascua Florida

• Spain was the most powerful empire in 16th-century Europe and led the race to settle the Americas

• Columbus's expeditions opened the way for Spanish conquests in Mexico (Cortés vs. the Aztec) and Peru (Pizarro vs. the Inca)

• In 1565, Spaniards established St. Augustine, America's oldest continuously occupied European settlement

• Spain's defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 ended its dominance; the age of British empire had dawned

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FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: Why is Florida called Florida?

Juan Ponce de León named it La Florida in 1513. He sailed north from Puerto Rico and came ashore during Easter season. The Spanish name for Easter is Pascua Florida, meaning 'Festival of Flowers.' The lush, flowering landscape he found there made the name fitting.

Q2: What was the Spanish Armada and why did it matter?

The Spanish Armada was a fleet of 130 Spanish warships sent in 1588 to invade England, punishment for English piracy and Protestantism. England's smaller, better-designed ships and heavier guns defeated the Armada decisively. Spain's defeat ended its era of dominance. The age of British naval and imperial power had begun, and England would go on to establish permanent settlements along America's Atlantic coast.

Q3: What is St. Augustine and why is it significant?

St. Augustine, Florida, founded in 1565, is the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in what is now the United States. Established by Spanish colonists, it predates the English settlements at Roanoke (1585) and Jamestown (1607) by decades.

Ponce de León and La Florida

By the early 1500s, no European had yet landed on the mainland of what we now call the United States. Then came the Spaniard Juan Ponce de León. It was Easter season, 1513. Ponce de León sailed north from modern-day Puerto Rico and came ashore on the mainland. The landscape was lush with flowers. He named it La Florida, from a Spanish name for Easter, Pascua Florida. Another first for Spain, another Spanish mark on the new world. Spain was the most powerful empire in 16th-century Europe. She led the race to settle the Americas. But not for long. Catholic Spain would soon lose that lead to Protestant England. As the English ascended, they set their sights on the new world. Florida would be the last colony on America's eastern seaboard to bear a Spanish name.

In Europe, Spanish prowess had advanced with the marriage between Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon. Together, the two monarchs achieved an unprecedented level of Spanish unity with newly forged religious and political purpose. They successfully completed the Reconquista, the centuries-long effort to expel the Moors from Spain. Juan Ponce de León was among the Catholic Spaniards who fought for the two monarchs. Under their sponsorship, Columbus sailed four times to the new world. It was on the second of these voyages that Ponce de León joined the Italian explorer. For the larger story of how Europeans first reached these shores, see our episode on Columbus and the Old World meeting the New.

Spanish Conquests and Catholic Missions

Columbus's pioneering efforts led the way for Spanish conquests in Mexico and Peru. Along with allies from native tribes, Cortés and his soldiers decimated the Aztec Empire. Pizarro and his men did the same to the Inca. Spanish expeditions and conquests opened the way for Catholic missionaries from Spain to evangelize natives in North and South America. Franciscan missions were eventually established in modern-day New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, and California. In 1565, Spaniards established St. Augustine, America's longest-existing European settlement. Gold and silver mined in the New World made Spain the wealthiest and most powerful empire in Europe. Spanish ships soon became the target of English pirates, most famously Francis Drake, who was later knighted Sir Francis Drake by Queen Elizabeth I.

England threw its support to the Netherlands, who sought independence from Spanish domination. The English would soon try their own hand at colonizing North America, beginning with the doomed effort recounted in our episode on the lost colony of Roanoke.

The Spanish Armada and England's Rise

By 1588, Spain's King Philip II had decided to invade England. He would punish the English for their piracy and their Protestantism. In May of that year, the Spanish Armada set sail for the English Channel, consisting of 130 ships, at the time the largest fleet ever assembled in Europe. When the two sides clashed in late July and early August, Spain's largest warships maneuvered with difficulty in the waters off the coast of northwest France. Not so the English vessels, which were better designed. To their further advantage, the English fleet carried a greater number of heavy guns. Spain's defeat was decisive. The consequences for the new world were great. The age of Spanish dominance was over.

The age of Great Britain had dawned. The English now ruled the seas. The British Empire would eventually become the most expansive in all of world history. By the 1920s, it covered nearly one quarter of the globe. Among their first expansions after defeating Spain, the English established permanent settlements along America's Atlantic coast. There would be one last moment of Spanish glory against their English nemesis: in the 1740s, Spain successfully repelled the English invasion of La Florida. The victory was not long-lived. By 1763, Florida was an English colony. In the wake of the American War for Independence, the colony was returned to the Spanish. By 1821, Florida was an American territory. On March 3rd, 1845, the United States admitted Florida as the 27th state. More than a century later, starting in 1959 and extending to our own time, well over a million immigrants fled Cuba to America. In search of new life, most of them would settle within a few hundred miles of the island they left, in Florida, the land named by their Spanish forebear. Jamestown's founding in 1607 marked the moment England's grip on America truly began to take hold.